Coalition for Community and Labor Solidarity

The Coalition for Community and Labor Solidarity opposes so-called ‘free trade’ agreements, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that are better described as ‘investor rights’, ‘labor repression’, and ‘anti-regulation’ agreements. The TPP negotiators seek to create a NAFTA-like exclusionary regional economic system in the Pacific Rim that privileges private corporate and investor rights above public sovereignties, and would codify the dispossession and maldistribution of material resources resulting from generations of colonialism, militarism, fraud, and financial capitalism. That the TPP negotiating texts remain secret, even from the elected officials of the negotiating governments, while corporate ‘advisors’ continue to influence the outcome behind closed doors, demonstrates clearly to the peoples of the Pacific Rim that its contents are rotten and that they cannot withstand the scrutiny of publicity. The leaked negotiating texts of the TPP chapters that have so far come to light have only confirmed and reinforced our opposition. A sustainable future, and a sane economy, depend on greater democracy and inclusion – the opposite of the TPP.